Bandidos member loses
fight with police over gun licence and 'gang' label

Police and Parliament say Bandidos
Motorcycle Club is a gang - but a Wairarapa member says it's just a
law-abiding bike-enthusiasts' group.

A bikie gang member has lost his appeal
against the revocation of his gun licence, in what police hope could be a
landmark case.

In at least two previous
cases, involvement with a gang has been held by the courts to be irrelevant
when determining a person's fitness to hold a firearms licence.

Wade Victor Innes, from Wairarapa, had held
a firearms licence since 1997. But police revoked it last July, claiming
he had twice failed to update his address and had been seen wearing a Bandidos motorcycle
club vest.

Parliament has listed the Bandidos as a
criminal-affiliated gang, and police have described them as a worldwide
organised crime syndicate that set up in New Zealand in 2012.

However, Innes argued at Masterton
District Court that he was a family man who simply belonged to weekend bike
club.

Judge Arthur Tompkins' said in
his judgment: "The applicant ... says that whatever the organisation's
international reputation might be, in New Zealand it is simply a law-abiding
club for motorcycle enthusiasts."

Police Association president
Greg O'Connor​ responded to that claim on Monday by saying: "I feel a Tui
billboard coming on."

Innes could not be reached for comment.
His lawyer, Ian Hard, said his client was a family man and plumber who liked
bikes and joined a group he did not know had criminal links overseas: "He
sees it as a weekend sort of bike club."

He said his client had no criminal
convictions bar a traffic offence, and argued there was no evidence that any
criminal activities had pervaded the Wairarapa chapter of the club.

"It is rather unfortunate that people who
are joining a group quite naively can prevent them taking part in other
activities they like."

When Innes renewed his licence in 2007, he
said he possessed .22, .44 and .308 calibre guns.

The judge noted that Innes told police he
had since disposed of the guns, but refused to say where, or with whom.

Police presented evidence of his gang
associates' violence convictions, along with photographs that showed
him drinking with several patched members at a Wellington pub, and stopping
with them at a Levin petrol station.

They also said that, last January, Innes and
11 Bandidos members were stopped at a Kapiti petrol station.

Acting organised crime national
manager Detective Inspector Stuart Mills said it was "very rare" for a
patched gang member to hold a firearm licence. They were typically declined
due to convictions or associations.

But the judge's ruling referenced the
previous cases in which gang affiliations were deemed to be irrelevant. He
said one of those cases appeared to be contradictory, in that it noted the
risk that unlicensed gang members could get hold of a licensed
comrade's guns.

The cases were also at odds with the
Police Arms Manual, which identified criminal gang membership as grounds for
rejecting a licence application, he said.

He concluded that Bandidos members were
generally "not the types of people who should be 'entitled to lawful
possession of firearms'."

Mills said police were considering what
impact the decision might have for future proceedings, and whether it set a
precedent.

O'Connor said: "I think every New
Zealander would agree with the decision, and would find it astonishing that
gang members had even been able to apply to be firearms licence owners
anyway."